Advanced Studies in Human Happiness
by MacyBearLovesJONAS
Summary: Why a certain anarchist blonde and a certain obnoxious lawyer with abandonment issues belong with each other and how they figure that out


_**A/N: Hi there! This is my first Community fic and I am a diehard Jetta shipper. Now that that's outta the way, I would like to request y'all to send me your feedback, it doesn't matter whether its praise or flames. I love hearing from you guys. That's the bottom line. **_

_**So here's the fic, without any more ado**_

* * *

If the Britta Perry of three years ago had the cool superpowers she'd always said she didn't want or believe in, and been able to look into the future to see what she had become now, she might've very well used the very same super powers to find an appropriately original way to kill herself.

Because that was how much she'd changed in the last thirty odd months... changed in ways that might've just given a heart attack to the Britta she was back then. Thirty six months earlier, she'd graduated from the community college that proudly had an anus on it's school flag... the place she'd over time learned to call her second home for just about four memorable years of her life.

Britta Perry had, against all odds, finished community college with a degree in psychology and at the end of it, gotten not only a job, but also an admission letter to the Masters Program in Psychology at NYU, a decision that while had been taken in haste, she still didn't regret. Something had changed inside Britta in the last year of college. Don't get her wrong, she was still the same feminist, anarchist and atheist blonde with commitment issues, but somehow, the study group that had become her replacement family and being one half of the Greendale parents had changed her irreversibly.

The Britta Perry that graduated from Greendale was a much softer, much more tolerant and a better rounded individual. And it was all because of the six other people in the study group that had started in the beginning of their college years as a Spanish study group and progressed through Anthropology and Biology before successfully navigating the twisted maze of Politics in the last term. Britta knew for a fact that she'd learned so much more from the six people that had at first become her study group, then friends and slowly but surely, her surrogate family.

Because come on, which anarchist, atheist and feminist runaway would be on great or even good terms with her conservative Christian family that slept in silk sheets, had two butlers, a whole bunch of servants, two garages full of cars that did nothing to save the Earth and cobwebs all over the family money. That's right. Britta Elizabeth Perry was a true blue rich girl that had run away from home on the eve of her sixteenth birthday... or as her mother liked to call it, the day she embarrassed the New England Perrys to heck and back when she disappeared just twelve hours before the cotillion that would serve as her debut into society, was to take place.

For a mother who wouldn't even swear, Britta's parent had been surprisingly cold when the then sixteen year old had come back hungry and raggedy after about two weeks, closing the door in her face after telling her that the day she'd shamed them, was the day she'd died for them. So yeah, Britta Perry had once been a rich girl, but not any more. That had probably been the start of the atheism and abandonment issues, the therapist inside her now, knew. The feminist had already been a center stage player since the moment her mother had tried to stuff her bra with tissue when she was just thirteen, to get her to look mature enough so that she might catch the eye of some privileged young man at her father's yearly charity gala dinner.

The anarchy however, Britta was kinda disappointed to say, had nothing to do with either of her parents. It had been the direct result of their actions however, so she was happy enough to blame them for that too. When her parents had kicked her out of the family, she'd found shelter with a couple of friends. Friends that had gotten her hooked not only on the merits of giving, the importance of protesting and the truth of anarchy theory, but also drugs and alcohol.

Well, the foot model stint featured in there somewhere but she'd quit even that because she'd been getting a lot of heat for being a model while she called herself a feminist. Plus, her hippie boyfriend at that time Dante, had been inordinately possessive about her and had almost beaten up the photographer once for touching her feet. So bye-bye a lucrative foot modelling career it had been, and back to the everyday runaround of protests, pot, booze and getting tear gassed by the police.

It had been fun and Britta had felt as if she was actually doing something for a worthy cause in the beginning but after her pseudo relationship with Dante, pseudo because she'd found out later from a friend that he'd been sleeping with four other women when she'd believed that he was her boyfriend, and she'd finally come to understand that most of the people who were supposedly her friends and co-believers, were just there for some reason of their own. Whether it was to get something, or lose something, maybe even get lost so that someone couldn't find them, nobody she knew in the protest group was actually doing this for the cause they said they were working toward.

That had been the turning point in Britta's life. Or she liked to think so, because losing faith in her cause because a man cheated on her sounded too commonplace and down trodden womanlike for even herself to believe. She knew her faith in protesting and the hippie lifestyle was lost. Britta Perry had never progressed beyond high school, but she wasn't your stereotypical dumb blonde. Gullible she might've been, but she wasn't dumb. And now that her decision to make a lifestyle change was in place, she went to the next step on her ladder to achieving progress in life. Education.

Of course, Greendale was definitely not the kind of place she had envisioned herself attending and her feminist and anarchist views were close to impossible to camouflage, much less leave behind completely. Because face it, she was who she was, even before she'd joined the protest movement. And so she knew she was going to be sidelined and treated as an outcast, even at a school full of outcasts, and by then, she'd decided that it wouldn't bother her at all. But, she hadn't counted on the superlative sneakiness and the inability to take rejection of one Jeffery Adam Winger.

* * *

While Britta had considered all six of them part of her Greendale family, what she and Jeff had, was something completely different. Something both of them hadn't understood till it was just a bit too late.

It had taken leaving each other at the airport of all places, like the biggest romantic cliche in the whole wide world, at the end of the Greendale part of their lives, to understand just what they were going to leave behind. After graduation, all seven of them were getting on with their lives and even though they'd decided to keep in touch, Britta knew that it just wouldn't happen. It had been a painful coincidence that she and Jeff had flights out of the Denver airport at the same time from opposite gates, leading to the opposite sides of the country - she to New York and he to California.

The last time she spoke face to face with Jeffery Winger was to say goodbye and good luck, something he'd echoed, but the look in his eyes had told her... told her that he was suffering from the same enlightenment that was suffocating her at the moment. They were just now understanding exactly what they were trying to leave behind in their attempt to get on with their lives. But come on, this was neither a sitcom with a happily ever after ending nor was it some sort of Annie's Disney dream where the hero always got the girl. So there had been no declarations of love that day, or any day after that and while they'd still kept in touch, emails or phone calls were few and far between and somehow, while it hurt to have the knowledge she did, it also made her thank Jeff in her heart and mind, for not making it difficult for both of them by trying to broach that topic. Because let's face it, Britta Perry was still Britta Perry, no matter how much she'd changed... and he was Jeffery Winger, just as damaged and weird as she was.

Because that had been their thing. They were both strong personalities, both self centered, both extremely competitive, they thrived on bringing each other down and didn't even flinch at the thought of saying something that might be construed as hurtful to the other because that was how much they got each other. Ultimately, him with his parental issues, his douchiness and his commitment phobia was a duplicate of her with her parental issues, feminism, anarchy and commitment phobia. According to Abed, they were the male and female version of each other and therefore shouldn't fit. Because the normal world rules said that opposites attracted and objects of the same kind repelled each other. Maybe it didn't apply to humans... or maybe, and more possibly, she and Jeff were just the exception that proved the rule or something of that sort.

Jeff and Britta had been through all the stages of a relationship that two single people could try with each other. They`d been acquaintances, a man and a woman who used each other for sex, competitors, friends, team mates, drinking buddies, best friends, had pretended to be engaged and once, even boyfriend and girlfriend... not necessarily in that order, though the group hadn't known about that last one, basically because that had lasted barely forty five minutes before it had dissolved into a contest on who could piss each other off better, or the one before that because... well, it had been Britta`s fault and Jeff had been shanghaied into going along.

Yeah, they always got each other better than anyone else but somehow they`d never worked. Was that because they subconsciously didn't want it to or whether they weren't mature enough to attempt something that might hurt them again, this time more than any other occasion before?... or was it just plain fate that they weren't supposed to be together, neither knew. But that didn't stop them from having more fun with each other than at any other time they spent with other people or alone. Even on dates with other people with the possibility of sex involved at the end of the night, did Jeff and Britta have as much fun as they did on a normal movie night. Granted, it almost automatically had meant sex at the end of it for a long time, but after being found out by the group, they`d also spent a lot of evenings just hanging out and still having so much fun.

It was kinda hard to explain the connection that she and Jeff seemed to have, but all she knew at that time, was that it made her feel things she wasn't really ready to feel. It seemed as though Jeff was going through the same problem and so both of them had chosen the safer territory of flirting, dancing around their feelings and the obvious sexual tension. While it had been obvious to the whole world that there was something sparking between them, they had chosen to completely ignore the emotionally dangerous territory for safer pastures, or so they`d thought.

* * *

Shirley had been the first one to see it and she hadn't shied away from telling Britta that. Britta still remembered that day at Annie's Death Day party which Jeff had spent flirting away with Professor Slater. Shirley, dressed as Harry Potter has not only broken the antenna on her car, but also trashed the woman's office. Okay, that had been mostly because the older woman was having a personal crisis, but it had still made Britta feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside to have someone actually care for and stand up for her.

Shirley was like the over protective mother figure of the group who couldn't stop herself from making decisions she knew were wrong. It was her impulsiveness and her love for a good piece of gossip that had endeared the older woman to Britta. While these might be qualities that might turn some other person off of Shirley, those were the exact same qualities that had shown Britta that while Shirley might've been successful in her life in her own way, she was still as imperfect as Britta herself was. She`d made wrong decisions, but was willing to face up to them and do her time to make up for them. It was this inner strength that Britta had admired in Shirley and it was this quality that she`d tried to learn from her friend.

Annie Edison might've been the youngest one of the group but on so many occasions, she'd proved just how mature and intelligent she was. Annie might've been the one serious romantic contender for Jeff at Greendale other than maybe professor Slater, but that had thankfully not managed to affect the weird friendship dynamic that existed between her and Britta. Even while they were pretending not to vie for Jeff's attention, or rather Annie pretended not to while Britta actually tried not to, Annie had been a good friend to Britta.

And after Greendale, she'd been the one person who'd religiously kept in touch, giving her all the latest news about everyone. Everyone, except Jeff that is, but that was understandable. The two women had in fact become so close after graduating that Britta had even helped Annie plan out her engagement party... something neither she nor Jeff attended. Something only she and Jeff didn't attend. Annie had been more than a bit put out but she'd understood... after all, their Disney princess Annie Edison was grown up now... and soon going to be Mrs. Annie Tyler, the wife of a respected Pediatrician from Seattle.

Pierce Hawthorne of the Hawthorne Moist towelettes fame... right. Enough said. Pierce had been probably the most difficult person in the group for her to find a fit with, but they'd somehow managed to co-exist, albeit not very peacefully. How could they when Pierce was the definition of a sexist, the guy who stereotyped and objectified women with every breath he took. And then there was the rampant racism that they`d had to deal with. But even Pierce was a human, even though he didn't always behave like one and the group had somehow found a decent if not comfortable medium between throwing Pierce out and welcoming him back with open arms.

And then there were two. Troy and Abed just couldn't be separated in Britta's mind. To her, they were like twins who'd been born to different mothers. I mean, they were more like brothers than best friends, which they'd been since the first day of college and would continue to be till the last day of their lives. Troy and Abed had made all their lives so much more interesting and fulfilling with their presence in the four years they had spent at Greendale that Britta would always be thankful to them for their energy and life. In Troy and Abed, Britta Perry had found her younger brothers. They both knew that she loved taking care of them and usually took advantage of her inability to lose a bet by daring her to do so many things she would otherwise never have done. Plus there were those times at the end of the day when all of them had left the study group, and Abed and Troy would stay back and do something that was uniquely them, something so weird and quirky that you couldn't stop smiling when you saw it. Like the time she saw them Krumping or the time Abed dressed Troy up like a Christmas tree, full with a song about how the Christmas Troy was the most beautiful thing in the world.

And it maybe didn't hurt the scene too much that these were the moments very few and far between, when Jeff Winger came out of his douchy, commitment phobe, i-am-better-than-you lawyer shell and was just Jeff... the guy who hung out with his quirky friends having fun doing weird things. It, in turn helped her relax... not that she ever told either of them that she`d known about their extracurricular activities. For one, Troy and Abed would expect her to participate and Britta didn't feel up to it... even now, and for another, she was sure Jeff would stop participating if he knew someone else knew about it. And there was no way she was going to be responsible for taking those moments of freedom away from him.

Speaking of Jeff Winger, there was him too. In the group I mean... though his presence in Britta's life had never been limited to the study group. Even in the beginning, when they`d all just started Greendale, he`d been the guy that spent much more time with her because he was trying to hit on her, pretty much all the time. And then, it had somehow changed to spending time together because they were friends. Two people who understood each other... truly. They understood that they weren't perfect, that in fact, they were a little too imperfect to bring perfection so anyone else in the world. Somehow, their own jagged edges had softened the other`s and they`d been able to share something deeper and more profound than either of them had thought they might be able to.

And of course, it freaked the hell out of Britta and Jeff. Because let`s face it. While they were both of them older than the average college going student, they couldn't be called more mature in any way. Because she was Britta the buzz kill who quoted feminism and anarchy theories that she herself didn't believe in, she was the one who strove so much to get away from the possibility of becoming like her parents that she donated more than she could afford to, making her life a miserable one, and he was Jeff the douchy jerk with the unnatural obsession about his looks, crispy hair and an annoying attitude that put himself in front of everybody else, because he felt he deserved the best even after life had given him such a bad wake up call.

So they conveniently ignored their feelings, slightly harder for Britta than it was for Jeff the jerk, dated other people, and limited their interactions to sex. Which had made it awkward with the other people and led to them breaking it off, leading to more sex and more commitment phobia. A vicious circle really, like Abed liked to call it. But somehow, they'd never been brave enough to stop, and really give their so-called relationship a true try. It had always been the non-existent back -up plan inside their head that led them to try and hold onto to each other even when their other, more real relationships in life were getting ruined because of it. They knew they should let go, but Jeff and Britta just couldn't. And if that didn't tell them something, nothing and nobody else could.

So they'd coasted through four years of Greendale on sexual tension, awkward affection and a staggering level of mutual understanding, when they both knew that if they gave it an honest to goodness try, they might end up with something more than they'd ever realized. But they didn't do anything about it.

* * *

Which was why Britta Perry found herself standing on the tiny little balcony of her studio apartment in Greenwich at 2 am in the morning on a Saturday, unable to sleep, though she had trouble accepting it to herself even now. She knew that it was just late night in California where Jeff was probably living it up and partying the night away in some bar with his lawyer buddies and a bunch of bottle blondes wrapped around him. But she missed him... There. She'd said it. But that hadn't made things any better. The last three years had brought a lot of changes to Britta's life, but the passage of time had managed to change all but one tiny little portion of her... the part of her that loved Jeffery Winger, ace douche.

She was a strong, independent woman that didn't need a man in her life to keep her happy, but having this one in her life had definitely made it much easier to get up or go to bed every day. Facing a new day full of uncertainties or facing a night full of nightmares was definitely made a whole lot better by having someone to talk to or just hang out with, someone who she knew wouldn't judge her. And you can go ahead and call her a hypocrite, but she liked it when Jeff was around. He'd made her feel accepted in a way that no one had managed before. Not her fellow feminists or anarchists, not her schoolmates or college friends and definitely not her family. Maybe that was the only reason she was so stuck up on Jeff, but somehow, even Britta's now therapist mind couldn't find anything wrong with wanting to stay with someone who made you happy in the truest sense of the word.

Why she was suddenly remembering Jeff so much again might be because her cousin was getting married, again and had invited her, again, mainly to laugh in her face, again, again. Britta had weathered Jamie's wedding the first time over only because Jeffery Winger had been her plus one to the damn event. It wouldn't be too far from the truth to say that he was the only saving grace of the day. Hah... wonder how bad that day must've been for Jeff Winger douchebag to have saved the day by being there. But weirdly, Jeff being there beside her had given Britta the strength to face her family for what would be the second time since she'd been so unceremoniously kicked out of her own home. Given the fact that she'd succumbed to pressure and told her family that Jeff was her fiance, she hadn't really expected him to play through. But he'd done a truly remarkable job of making her stuck up family believe their relationship, and the fact that he was a hot shot lawyer, it wasn't too hard to believe just how grateful she`d been to having him as a friend.

Of course, with the open bar and the happiness of having thumbed her nose at her family, both literally and figuratively, that night had not ended in a very friendly manner. It would be safe to say that only one of the two rooms she'd booked for them at the hotel back when she'd been sober, were actually used that night. But again, somehow, they were able to get past the awkwardness, maybe because there wasn't any. Which should've creeped them out but it hadn't. Because really, just how many times had they been in the exact same situation before... not the cousin getting married, but the open bar and the 'being emotional about something always leading to sex' situation that existed between Jeff and Britta.

Britta took a deep breath as if it would help her cleanse her thoughts, and wrapping her arms around herself to ward off the slight chill of the night, turned back absently to her bedroom, shaking her head the the stray thought of how much better Jeff's arms used to feel around her. Even cuddling in bed with her favorite pillow didn't bring the sandman visiting so a visibly frustrated blonde peered into the small display of her cellphone, huffing at the time displayed. Thirty-two minutes past 2 AM, EST. With all the recent thoughts of Jeff, and her obnoxious habit of texting almost without thinking about it, Britta had to stop herself from sending a text message to him, shuddering at the message her sub conscious had typed out

_**Miss you... wish you were here**_

_**x**_

_**Britta**_

Without a second thought, Britta deleted the text and with another glare at the offending phone as if it had somehow hypnotized her into typing the message, placed it far enough away from her and turned away from it for double measure and tried to go back to sleep. Unsuccessfully.

* * *

Jeffery Adam Winger knew he was a douche. It was how he`d climbed the ladder of success the first time and he also knew that it was what was expected of him the second time too, if he wanted any sort of success in his chosen line of work.

Not that it was going to be a difficult thing to do considering the fact that douchiness was pretty much a built in reaction mechanism for him, Jeff was almost shocked the first time he actually found it difficult to be the jerk he was supposed to be. Greendale it seems, had changed him more than he'd thought.

Jeff had thought that he would feel some sort of freedom at having left the 'school shaped toilet' at the end of four years with a legitimate law degree in his hands, his old law firm had even offered him his job back, this time, in California for their new partner offices. That had to have been the best news of the week, the thing that made him feel like he'd conquered what he'd set out to conquer at the beginning of those four years. But somehow, it now felt as if he'd been right all along. Greendale had been sucking down his life force and at the end of four years of being an unwilling donor, Jeff Winger was finally feeling some sort of a connection.

That connection was however swiped aside easily enough, but it had been the other things, the other feelings that had happily ruined his day, his week, his years and the two years that had followed. Not only had he been sad to see his friends move in different directions, it had almost caused him physical pain to see the younger ones in the group, Annie, Troy and Abed grow up into pseudo normal human beings. That meant that his services as a Greendale parent were no longer required and while it was freeing in a way, it also made something deflate inside him. It hadn't struck him in the four years just how much he depended on the status these six people in the study group had granted him and by extension, just how much these people meant to him. Okay, make that five. Because Britta Perry was always going to be the hurricane that swept him away.

Which was why he`d taken one look at her and started the Spanish study group... just to get close to her. Even Slater had noticed that he had something special with Britta. Hell, he'd even been ready to forgo opportunities for sex, if it meant that any one of their group was in trouble... or if it was Britta, all she had to do was call... or in her case, drunk dial him.

He knew that while Britta might act like she was some lone crusader and the descendant of Joan of Arc, he`d seen her at her best and worst. He knew her for who she was and whether he admitted it or not, he liked the real her, warts and all. Just like she seemed to get the real Jeffery Adam Winger, just the way he was. Maybe they`d gravitated to each other because they were the only two people ready to accept each other the way they were, or maybe there might've been other forces at work here. But reasons had never bothered Jeff, the man who called himself an agnostic. Whatever was there between him and Britta was there, and it seemed that it was there to stay. So the most logical conclusion was to completely ignore that. And so they did.

* * *

Which shouldn't be why Jeffery Winger, lawyer extraordinaire, was sitting up in his bed, watching infomercials at 4 in the morning, but it was. It should be unlawful for one tiny little anarchist blonde to have so much influence upon him, but fortunately, she did. But there was no way he was the one who said anything about feelings first. And he knew she wouldn't say anything either, so there they were, stuck in limbo all over again. Which shouldn't be causing him to lose sleep, but it was.

Jeff couldn't figure out why he was suddenly thinking of Britta so much lately. I mean, it had been three years since their graduation from Greendale and since then communication had been dicey at best. He still bought brownies on the internet from Shirley, who always sent a note along with some new gossip, mostly about Vaughn, but that was the extent of his communication with her. Pierce had never had anything important to say even when they`d been together at Greendale so Jeff automatically stop listening when Pierce spoke. So no real information there. Then there were Troy and Abed, his secret buddies... well, they were busy in Hollywood, living in a studio apartment three doors down, so they weren't gonna be any help. And while Jeff knew they would be willing to help fill his waking hours with weird things to do that he would ultimately have a lot of fun doing, they wouldn't have the answer to his questions. So... last resort.

And of course, Annie. Little Annie... or not so little anymore. Annie Edison was getting married after all. Maybe that was why Jeff remembered Britta so much again... but no. That wasn't it. It had to be something else. And then it clicked. He`d received an email from Britta`s cousin Jamie something, the obnoxious woman whose wedding he`d attended for what seemed to be only the first time around, as Britta`s fiance. Oh yeah... that had been one helluva night. Yeah... that must be it. It seemed Jamie was getting married again and had thought to send him an invite... which he was sure was to make sure he wasn't still with Britta so that they could all chat about Britta Perry`s inability to hold onto a single functional relationship in her life. As if they all did...

Jeff didn`t want to understand why he was so irritated or why he was losing sleep over this. I mean, after all, Britta was a grown up woman and she could take care of herself. He wasn`t needed nor was he wanted, to be around to take care of her. And who was he trying to kid? Britta Perry was a porcupine when it came to feelings and caring for people. She got so prickly and closed off if she got wind of the fact that someone was trying to care for her that it had always amused him before... before, when he`d never even thought of just ow serious his feelings for her were. now that he knew, he wasn`t amused... not so much.

Jeff sighed as even the infomercials petered out on the screen to be replaced by a sea of blue. The blue of the screen reflected off of everything including himself, bathing the whole room in various shades of the cool color and Jeff couldn`t help but think about all the nights he and Britta had spent in bed, unable to sleep because of their repertoire of nightmares, which allowed them to spend more time in bed, awake and chatting about things inconsequential rather than sleeping. Of course, more often that not, chatting would progress to making out and in logical conclusion, sex. Which he always liked... But if he was honest with himself, Jeff liked those inconsequential chats at 3 in the morning as much as he liked the explosive couplings that had resulted. It seemed to be the only time when both he and Britta were as unguarded as two people like them could be.

The silence that filled his nights now wasn`t what got to him... It was the fact that he`d reverted to the person he was before he`d met the Greendale study group... before he`d met Britta. Seriously, his phone was back to being filled with numbers from girls called Supermarket blonde and Car wash brunette. the only women with names on his phone were Shirley, Annie and of course, Britta. Maybe the only difference between the Jeff of before Greendale and the Jeff after, was the fact that he didn`t use those numbers quite as often as he would`ve in the past.

Picking up his phone, he scrolled through his emails once again, searching for the one he knew he was looking for. And the reason he was looking for that particular email? Well, he couldn`t very well let his fiance down, could he? Or... should that be wife and the mother of his child by now? Because seriously, they`d been pretty convincing as the couple hopelessly in love just about three and a half years ago.

Grinning for the first time in a long time, Jeff Winger bounded out of bed and with his phone clutched in his hand like some sort of weird prize, strode purposefully into his walk-in closet and started to pack.

* * *

If there was one thing Britta Perry hated more than anything in the world, it was being forced to make it appear as if she was a part of a happy family. Which was what was demanded of her whenever she was forced to show up for those dreaded family events, not for the reason that she was still a part of their family, but for the reason that people would talk if she wasn`t there.

Of course, this time around, Jamie`s wedding was going to be a tad more unbearable... basically because she would have to endure the talk about how Britta couldn`t keep even one man around her for more than a short period of time, because this time, there would be no Jeff Winger miraculously helping her save face in front of people whose opinions she knew she shouldn`t care about. While she didn`t really need him around... oh who was she kidding? It wasn`t important that he wasn`t necessary. The important thing was that she liked having him around. He was one of the few people she actually felt comfortable around and one of the very, very few men who made her feel safe and comfortable in a way that she thought she`d almost forgotten.

The drive to New Haven had taken the better part of three hours for Britta, who`d never been a very good driver, but she`d used the whole of the drive to find reasons for her apparent failure in life. That is, a reasonable explanation as to why she wasn`t with Jeff anymore and why they weren`t marries and expecting a baby like she should be in the eyes of her family and their friends. Because she knew that it didn't matter whether it was Jamie's wedding, she would automatically be under the scanner as the unsuccessful and shameful black sheep of the family.

Britta had worked herself up enough to start thinking about not attending the wedding itself by the time she entered the electronically controlled gates of her parents' villa. Even as she was tempted to just make a mad U-turn that would ruin her mother's manicured lawns and take her out of her family home at the same time, Britta gritted her teeth and forced herself to complete the drive to the house, something which had always driven her crazy, with the mile long winding driveway.

Parking with the rest of the invited crowd instead of driving into the family garages, Britta stepped out of her environment friendly Prius, feeling more than a bit uncomfortable and emotional about the whole thing. Uncomfortable because she knew that she didn`t have an excuse that wouldn`t be shredded by the sharks her family were, and emotional because that was how she got nowadays when she thought about one extremely tall lawyer jerk with the ridiculously upturned nose.

Catching sight of a Lexus, disturbingly like the one the aforementioned lawyer used to own, did nothing to calm her down as she walked up to the huge marquee set up on the aforementioned manicured lawns.

Her so called family had outdone themselves in the spending department this time and Britta could see that, even from the entrance to the huge tent. It was slightly mollifying that the first person she met at the accursed wedding was none other than her favorite aunt Molly. The jolly, rotund woman was the only one in the family that Britta had any respect and affection for and meeting that one face that might be happy to see her there made her feel just that little bit better. But it seemed Molly was even more happy to see her than she`d imagined. The older woman`s face lit up in a way that told Britta that it wasn`t just her turning up that had created that effect.

Something was going on and she didn`t know what. The urge ot turn tail and run was getting more and more irrepressible as Molly lumbered up to her and catching her up in a tight hug, sighed into her ear

"Oh Britta dear!... It`s so good to see you after such a long time... And I am so happy to hear about your marriage!... and the baby too! I must say you hardly look like you`re even pregnant!... But you definitely glow like a mom-to-be... I am so happy my dear... I always knew you had it in you to find your own happily ever after..."

"Wha-?"

Whatever she`d been about to ask, never made it past her lips as her phone chose that moment to interrupt her. Slightly irritated at whatever the hell was going on, Britta nevertheless attended to the device clutched in her hand, because that was the kind of person she was. And it turned out to be a good thing that she was the kind of person she was because it was a text message from Jeff.

_**Turn around**_

_**x**_

_**Jeff**_

Still clutching her phone in her hands, half listening to her aunt who was going on about her husband, Jeffery... Wait. What!

Her husband. Right... Molly was definitely under some sort of major misunderstanding about her life and before she could set it right, there was another beep from her phone... and another message from Jeff

_**Turn around. Now**_

_**x**_

_**Jeff**_

Mumbling something to Molly, Britta turned on her impossibly high heels she`s worn for the occasion and was immediately thankful for all the training she`d received in her teenage, because she knew without it, she would`ve fallen on her butt. Because standing in front of her with that signature smirk on his face, was Jeff Winger.

* * *

She might`ve been carved in stone for all the reaction she was able to exhibit. Jeff hadn`t flown the whole way across the continent for this. He`d had visions of Britta being happy that he was there, visions of Britta running into his arms and admitting that she loved him. Okay... they weren't gonna happen but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy them in his mind... right? So yeah... not really the reaction he expected. And if she went any paler, he might have to take her to the hospital.

Behind her, was her aunt, the one he remembered as Molly, the one person in Britta`s family that he actually liked. Because she was the only one in Britta`s family that liked Britta. Flashing his signature smile at the older woman, Jeff greeted her, giving Britta the time and opportunity to pull herself together. And was rewarded by a slight slackening of her shoulders and a small sigh, with a wary glance in his direction. Same old Britta, forever suspicious. It wasn`t like he`d flown the breadth of the continent just to take advantage of her. Maybe he had... but that was beside the point.

As soon as the aunt had bustled away, muttering something about having to see to some arrangements with a sly wink in Britta`s direction, Jeff turned to look at the woman he'd taken such a big chance for, only to find her staring down at her shoes very intently.

"Hey.."

"Why did you come?"

Ah... predictable Britta. This he could handle... it was the emotions and feelings part of this whole thing that gave him the cold shivers

"Well... couldn`t leave my wife alone to face the pack of wolves, could I?"

Her eyes narrowed a bit at that. Oh right. He'd better let her in on the whole history he'd developed for them

"Well come on... We couldn't still be engaged after three whole years. I figured if we're going with the fake relationship thing, we might as well go the whole hog and give them the best story we could. So pay attention... I am a hotshot lawyer, there's no changes there, you're a therapist who works with the underprivileged, we were married in a civil ceremony about a year ago, haven't had our anniversary yet and we've just found out that you're pregnant. Hmmm... that's about it. I think we covered all the basics"

Throughout Jeff's statement, all Britta had been doing was staring up at him with an inscrutable expression in her eyes

"Why?"

"Why what?"

He knew exactly what she was talking about, but wasn`t too keen to broach that subject yet. Yeah, he'd flown all this way just for that, but that didn't make it any more easy for the commitment phobe inside him.

"Why are you doing this?"

For a second her turned away, and Britta's heart almost broke. She'd never expected that she would see Jeff here, not the least in the role of her husband and the father of her imaginary child to be. But even though he was here and it looked as if all that she'd wanted was coming true, Britta was too wary of it all being some sort of game for the lawyer. She didn't want to build expectations on Jeff, only to have them blown away like a house of cards in a gale wind. She didn't want him to be here for anything other than the right reason. And what reason would that be? The one that said that he was as much in love with her as she was with him, was as crazy about her as she was about him. Anything else was just... not enough.

"Why do you think I am here Britta? Doesn't the fact that I am here, having flown across the country, because your cousin, who I don't even know, invited me to her wedding. I came because I knew you would need me. I came... because I need you... because I..."

She was about to say something deprecating about how he was trying to get her emotionally inovlved in this, but for once, she could see sincerity and a bit of apprehension in his eyes. In a way, he was as nervous about this as she was, and had as much to lose if not more than she did. Suddenly, she could understand what he meant. Just by coming here, he'd put himself out on the line, he was wearing his heart on his sleeve for her. The thought of Jeffery Winger, Mr. I-never-commit, doing so much just for her made Britta want to cry, hug and kiss him all at once.

And for once, she gave in to her impulses. Because Britta Perry didn't wear her heart on her sleeve. She wore it as a whole damn dress. It was one of the main things that Jeff liked... no, loved about her. She was so passionate for all the wrong causes, so stubborn at all the wrong moments and emotional over the silliest of things. But she was so strong, and with such a strong sense of right and wrong, that you couldn't help but admire her. Which he did. And having an arm full of a silk clad Britta, crying and kissing him in that way she had, didn't do anything to lessen the impact of that moment in any way... rather, Jeff would be willing ot bet that he would remember every freakin detail of this moment for the rest of his life.

Because when his lips finally parted from hers after a long, long time, the first thing she said, was

"I love you Jeff Winger... I might not act like it all the time, but believe me, I really really do"

Jeff nodded back at her, his own eyes gleaming with a film of happy tears he would swear later was never there. Britta wasn't all that worried about tears at that moment, because she'd been pretty much soaking his shirt for the last few minutes. But it felt so good to finally let go, to finally let it all out in the open, that she hadn't been able to stop herself. Wrapping his arms around her once again, he leaned down till his lips were brushing her ear

"I love you too Dragon turtle..."

And smothered the laughter that bubbled up with his own lips.

* * *

Of course, any relationship between two people with such strong personalities as Jeff and Britta could never be without it's own set of ups and downs. And of course, being Jeff and Britta, their ups and downs were comparable to Mount Everest and the Mariana Trench. But somehow, they managed to not kill each other in the intervening six months before they both got tired of answering the number one question people asked them. So, a secret ceremony was arranged, and with only their family, the Greendale family that is, in attendance, Jeffery Adam Winger and Britta Elizabeth Perry became man and wife.

There was some confusion about what Britta's name would be after the wedding, but Jeff seemed happy enough to have the woman as his wife, he wasn't too particular about having her take his name. So Britta Perry stayed Britta Perry, but liked being called Mrs. Winger.

And twelve months down the line, was born Samantha Claire Perry-Winger, an unfortunately long monicker for a tiny little thing with a head full of blonde curls, deep blue eyes and the trademark ridiculously upturned nose, which she somehow made look very cute.

There were two more kids down the line, twins these, Jack and Jamie Perry-Winger. And they all somehow managed to turn into nice and stable human beings, very much unlike their parents had been.

* * *

_**A/N: So there it is. My first Community fic done. Hope you guys liked it... **_

_**Don't hesitate to click on the blue button underneath this, and tell me what you thought. All sorts of feedback welcomed with open arms. **_

_**Lotsa luv and cookies**_

_**MB**_


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